In the first two months of 2024, Bernalillo Police made some significant fentanyl seizures prompting them to post two alerts via social media. According to BPD, Officer Bryan Cantril took 322 pills off the street on Jan. 16 during a traffic stop on Hernandez Road. On Feb. 5 he arrested another suspect with 64 more pills while responding to a welfare check at an abandoned building that used to be an International House of Pancakes. According to Bernalillo dispatch, people had been seen going in and out of the closed business, creating public concern.
Lt. John Castañeda with the Sandoval County Sheriff’s office spoke with the Signpost about the prevalence of the drug that is trafficked throughout the county. According to Castañeda, law enforcement has already seen an increase in fentanyl arrests this year compared to this time in 2023, and “the amount that [offenders have] had when we do take it off the street has increased. I’ve even seen the change from meth to fentanyl, and I think it’s just because [fentanyl] is so much easier to get. People just touching it can be affected by it. It’s very dangerous. We just wanna make sure that we’re getting the upper hand because it’s always going to be here,” he said.
Castañeda said the Sheriff’s Office has implemented two essential weapons in the fight against the fentanyl epidemic. The Street Crimes Intelligence Unit aims to take drugs off the street and focuses on drug-related crimes, and the K-9 unit uses police dogs to assist in sniffing out the drug.
There are unique challenges that make fighting the illegal sale and distribution of fentanyl in Sandoval County so difficult, especially because fentanyl can be a prescribed medication. Castañeda explains that police dogs are particularly useful because dogs alert to amounts of the drug, “totally exceeding personal use. [Quantities] obviously set up for distribution and illegal consumption.”
An ongoing problem
In 2023, the Signpost reported about a large shipment of 22,000 fentanyl pills and four pounds of meth intercepted by Sandoval County Sheriff’s Officers in August 2022. Officials said that about 8,000 of those pills were meant to hit the streets in Sandoval County. The street value of that seizure was estimated between $40,000 to $55,000. The Street Crimes Intelligence Unit, along with other NM law enforcement agencies, seized over half a million dollars in illegal drugs in 2022.
Law enforcement in Sandoval County continue to make arrests and seizures of the drug, but other community programs have been created to help curb this growing problem. Last year, the county along with other agencies hosted a “Fentanyl Awareness Week.” It was a community education project hosted by a collaboration between Sandoval County, Bernalillo County, the City of Albuquerque, the Drug Enforcement Agency, the New Mexico Department of Health, local law enforcement, and numerous health and addiction treatment organizations.
Castañeda stressed that collaboration between different departments is the key to fighting this problem, partly because “A lot of times the drug dealers don’t stay in one district, they’re just all over… it’s so many jurisdictions and they’re running some of the major highways and byways of Sandoval County.”
The Town of Bernalillo hosts a “prescription drug take back” several times a year. The next 2024 event is scheduled for April 27. These events help keep drugs out of landfills, and out of the hands of kids.